FT Questions....

[Altamir]

Hey Bud!!!

Firstly, I can tell you've hardly even given this the slightest bit of thought... (JUST KIDDING!)

The analysis helps a good bit.

The things that jump out at me are:

• Is your weight going up / are you eating enough to grow?... At some point, you'll need to gain body weight (and of course muscle mass) for strength to make progress at a decent rate. (Of course, there are world class PL and Oly lifters who can stay at the same weight class and make gains, but they are the strongest people in the world and just care about strength, in terms of their sport.)

Conversely, one of the best ways to bust through a strength plateau is to eat your way through it, so to speak. This will of course impact your recovery.

• Also I think recall that you like to couple loading days one right after another. This might have an impact on this phenomenon, too.

• Another option, since MR's progress quite well for you, would be to start using your Loading set exercises for MR's. The idea here would be to do MRs with the loading set exercises before those enter into your rotation. For example, if smith squats is a thigh exercise not currently in your Loading set rotation (but one you'd likely be adding soon), you'd make that a staple MR exercise. When the time comes to rotate in a new Loading set (and you could even jump the gun here a bit and drop a loading set exercise before you've absolutely entirely plateaued), you'd use smith squats (after which you'd not use that for MR's).

• You might try really focusing on the micro loading too with your loading sets, if you really like some of the exercise. Use the 2.5lb plates to progress. Just and extra 5lb each time is progression and this can add up slowly, and let you keep those favorite loading set exercises in place if the are great for growth for you.

Still, the first bulleted point is an important one to remember: The training will only elicit so much in terms of gains at a given caloric input. What's needed here is highly a function of the individual, so you may need to push the kcal more than the next guy.

-S

Thanks for the detailed response I appreciate it and unsurprisingly you bring up some valid points. I'll address possible what I think is the main one first.

I have been eating to grow (And growing!). However, what I did not think about, when writing my post above, was during my last big growth push I ate like a fiend. I put on a lot of muscle, a lot of fat, and a lot of extra weight on the bar. At the end of it, I was happy with everything but the spare tire around my waist. So in response, this time around I played it a little more conservatively, saw good muscle growth, not too bad as far as fat went, and a decent amount of extra weight on the bar (outside of the stalling methods I mentioned). Interesting point, I saw ZERO stalling the first go around. I hate to think that in order to progress in the methods I wish I have to deal with the extra fat gain, but I'm also not scared about getting a little chubby to better hit my goals. (I was just hoping there was a better way) Gives me some (no pun intended) good food for thought moving forward, and perhaps there lies a good answer in between the two.

I do do both loading days one after the other, It certainly has an impact. To some degree (how much I'm not certain). As I've gotten appreciably good at brutalizing my back and chest with pump sets (the day before loading sets). However my feeling was, since my chest histrionically does not recover very quickly, and my back seems to, it may not be the issue. As I completely dominated EVERY single chest set over the past three blasts. (Though the more I think about this, I used to do a lot of pressing lifts for chest, which did not work, and also why it may have stalled a lot in the past. I have now moved to doing isolation lifts, which has helped tremendously. This "historical" fact may not be as much truth as I thought, sorry for the rambling)

I mostly use free weights squat variations for thigh movements. and I did those once for MRs and really wished I never did. Do you think doing more machine based loading may help, as I can build it more with MRs? I have smith squats in my current rotation for both loading and MRs and they have certainly stalled the least out of my three lifts. So that seems like it might be a good idea. Also my ego is not to big to micro load and I'm afraid to grab the 2.5lb plates. Heck, I have not used them in a VERY long time, but when I was first starting I invested in a set of micro plates, 1/8lb, 1/4lb, 1/2lb and 1lb. and they helped, So I have faith that those methods work

Finally (sorry for the novel). Any feelings or thoughts on me possibly training too high a tier level for my legs? or is that more in my camp to play around with and see what happens? (which honestly is fine, just thought it might be a part of what's going on)

Thanks for the response, it's helped me collate some ideas in my head (and question some preconceived ones). as always your time is greatly appreciated.